As the coffee subscription segment evolves — either by “curators” or by individual roasteries dressing up their online shopping options — we’re seeing an increasing amount of specialization.

The latest player in the subscription game is Bean Box, a multi-roaster subscription company that is offering only coffee roasters from the Seattle area. Bean Box is flipping a popular marketing pitch among other subscription services, which is often something like: “Get freshly roasted coffee from anywhere.” Instead, the Bean Box team is banking on Seattle’s well-established reputation as a coffee mecca, with a pitch that underscores locality and freshness.

“Coffee drinking habits usually have more to do with proximity and convenience than discovering fresh, unique or truly great coffee,” Bean Box co-founder Matthew Berk said in an announcement of the new venture in late last month. “With 2.5 coffee shops for every 1,000 citizens, Seattle has the greatest concentration of coffee houses in the country, and also one of the largest concentrations of premium artisan roasters. Bean Box makes it possible for those outside Seattle to discover and sample this coffee in its freshest form.”

The monthly Bean Box — starting at $20 per month — includes four 1.7-ounce samples of individual coffees from a roster of roasters that currently includes Kuma Coffee, Caffe Ladro, Herkimer Coffee, Lighthouse Roasters and Broadcast Coffee Roasters, among others. Bean Box claims to ship coffees within 24 hours of roasting, which the company says is made possible by the proximity of its roaster partners. Said Berk, “If you’re not centrally located near roasters, you need to ship to a central warehouse before shipping once again to customers.

Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. Feedback and story ideas are welcome at publisher@dailycoffeenews.com.